A Perry County student spoke out against the Susquenita School District’s random drug testing policy at the school board meeting Tuesday night.
Natalie Cassell is going into the 6th grade at Susquenita Middle School, and she says the policy is unfair. It requires random drug testing for students who participate in afterschool activities and who drive to school.
She was drug tested three times last year at age 10, because she belongs to a leadership club.
“Instead of saying, ‘hey these activities are fun, you should do them, we need people to join,’ it’s just making people not want to do them,” she says.
Parents also spoke out against the policy at the meeting, saying middle school is too young for random drug testing.
Superintendent Kent Smith defended the policy, saying drug use is “prevalent” in Perry County and it increases during the middle school years.
The school board will ask the administration to revise the policy and more discussion will take place at the September 9th school board meeting.
But the school board shot down a motion to suspend the policy until it’s rewritten.